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| Interior Design Software Review |
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Interior Design Software and the pitfalls that can occur Re-decorating a house can be a daunting task. Today it’s not too difficult to use software to give you ideas before you start work. Here are a few tips we have learnt when using interior design and home planning software. Everyone likes to see what their house may look like once builders have been in. You used to have to trust your designer or yourself, bite the bullet and wait until the finished product. Now that software packages are so much more advanced, they can give you a very good idea of what it may look like - but which one should you choose, and what should you look for in interior design software. At KSD we have tried quite a few of the interior design packages available to see whether any of them would help us: A quick and easy learning curve, but extremely detailed, and hundreds of different options throughout the package, so even though it is easy to learn, it still takes a while to master. It depends whether you have the time and are very keen to see your own ideas develop. The graphics for Punch Home Design have been improving since they first started. When we first began to use it, the images were very much a sketch idea. Now you could mistake them for photographs. The package also allows for the design of appliances such as sinks, chairs, fireplaces, televisions etc. i.e. if you know the chair or table you would like and are willing to put the time in designing it, then your “graphical representation” can be extremely accurate. There are so many features included with the Punch package, to name a few: the automatic growth tool to see a garden progress, the huge paint library, an extensive drag & drop object library with brand name designer products built in and as we mentioned before, if there’s something more you would like, you can design it yourself. Punch sell a few different verisions of their software
Another interior design software package KSD have tried is: This can be downloaded free. Initially we thought this could be the one, and couldn’t understand why you would choose any other, but after a while we noticed it was full of bugs, and placing appliances or furniture in the design often lead to moments of huge frustration - maybe this is just in the free version but it’s not encouraging to restrict a user before buying the real thing.... We can’t say much about this one because we couldn’t bear to spend more time on it. 3. Floorplan 3D Something we learnt from this one was to look out for is whether it is possible to input the length of walls numerically rather than drag and drop. If dragging is the only option then steer clear, because you can never get the exact size of wall you would like and will go mad because of it. A piece of design software I’ll never forget for this reason. Other products exist for free such as the Ikea kitchen designer , downloadable from their website, but often these only allow you to plan out your designs with products they sell, so unless you know you are going to have an Ikea kitchen, this may not be what you are after. Another company that tries to get you to use their software is KBBc , but we didnt like it. It is an internet based piece of software, without the ability to save. Must only be used in Internet Explorer, otherwise some features don’t work, and closing the window will mean your work is lost. Wall and window lengths are limited to a resolution of 10cm, which is almost meaningless in the real world, and placing appliances is very difficult as there is no snap to grid feature. All in all, stay away from software that has been offered for free! The most useful thing that the software available can do is design bathrooms and kitchens, but we eventually concluded that the time necessary to learn the software packages was so long that it was easier to go to a specialist, and on giving them the floor space they would do the designing as they have been trained to use the interior design software and are paid to learn it inside out. It saves our time and our client’s time. Talk to your interior designer if you have any questions regarding a computer generated design.
Although I have told you to stay away from some of the software above, doesnt mean the finished product isnt good. We tend to stay with the same ktchen designers because we have used them before and like their work. I hope this helps if you are still interested in using some software to visualise your new home. Please contact KSD for any interior design help
Jane Dodson KSD Design Company
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